Reference: Watches, Night
Morish
There were with the Israelites three night watches:
1. From sunset (about 6 P.M.) to 10 P.M. La 2:19.
2. The middle watch, from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M. Jg 7:19.
3. From 2 A.M. till sunrise. 1Sa 11:11. Under the Romans there were four night watches, agreeing with the changes of the Roman guards, each being of three hours' duration, from sunset to sunrise. They were sometimes called evening, midnight, cock-crowing and morning. Mt 14:25; 24:43; Mr 6:48; 13:35; Lu 12:38.
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So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
The next morning Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
"Arise, cry aloud in the night At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones Who are faint because of hunger At the head of every street."
And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea.
"But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.
"Therefore, be on the alert--for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning--
"Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.